Windshield scraper



Nov. 5, 1968 e. H. YATES WINDSHIELD SCRAPER Filed March 5, 1966 George H. Vales BY Mm United States Patent 3,408,677 WINDSHIELD SCRAPER George H. Yates, 37 Hill St., Ellicott City, Md. 21043 Filed Mar. 3, 1966, Ser. No. 531,511 4 Claims. (Cl. -236) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention is directed to a windshield scraper made from a sheet of uniform thickness of such gauge to provide a substantial working edge of abutting type as opposed to a knife edge. The stiffness of such a thick edge is greatly reduced by an adjacent parallel slot which forms connecting bridges at the sides. These bridges transmit hand pressure to concentrate at spaced points on the blade edge with curvature adaption flexibility therebetween.

This invention relates generally to cleaning instruments, and more particularly it pertains to a hand held scraper for cleaning frost, ice, or snow from windshield windows especially those of convex shape.

Windshield scrapers have long been made of plastic because such material will not scratch glass. However, because heavy ice deposits require considerable force to be used, it is usual to compromise the surfacec0nf0rming flexibility of the material for the added stiffness of either a less resilient composition or a thicker cross section. In either case, there is lack of adaption to the curvature of the glass and each stroke is less effective.

With present day arcuate Windshields, an eflicient scraper for removing heavy ice must be stiff in the line of scraping thrust but flexible in a transverse plane. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a scraper which conforms to arcuate surfaces and yet is stiff in the line of thrust.

To provide a scraper having a relatively thick square edge blade with means to concentrate conforming pressure at the ends thereof, is another object of the invention.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide an easily manufactured one-piece scraper which is adaptable to finger or heel pressure of the hand for push or pull use.

Other objects and attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent and understood from the following detailed specification and single sheet of accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the improved scraper incorporating features of this invention showing one method of use;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the scraper of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a side elevation.

Referring now to the details of the invention, this novel scraper, illustrated by reference numeral 10, is formed by sawing or stamping a flat relatively thick sheet of hard but resilient plastic such as plexiglass to the shape illustrated. It will be noted the handle end 12 is reduced in Width and rounded off at the corners.

The opposite end of the scraper 10 is preferably sheared so as to provide sharp cutting edges 14 and ice square corners or pressure points 16 and 18. An elongated slot 20 is formed generally parallel to the edges 14 thus forming a blade 22 joined to the handle end 12 by narrow bridges 24 at each side of the scraper 10.

The scraper 10 may be used either as a pushing tool or pulling tool. As illustrated in FIG. 1, held with the fingers of the hand extended, it is a pushing tool, with the heel of the hand and crotch of the thumb exerting thrust in the direction of the blade 22. The fingertips apply pressure normal to the plane and this pressure is transmitted through the bridges 24 to the pressure points 16 and 18 at the ends of the blade 22.

When the scraper 10 is held with the fingers of the hand closed (not illustrated), the heel of the hand applies the pressure normal to the plane and a pulling stroke is used with the blade 22 positioned under the wrist.

In both cases, the portion of the blade 22 intermediate the ends or pressure points 16 and 18 can flex to conform to an arcuate windshield yet is stiff in direction of scraping thrust. A full width of the blade 22 is thus effective unlike prior tools where pressure is concentrated at the center of the blade.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. A one-piece hand scraper for removing snow and ice from a windshiled, comprising a planar sheet of material having a cutting end and a handle end opposite said cut-ting end, said sheet having a symmetrical, laterally elongated slot smoothly formed intermediate said cutting end and said handle end and the sides thereof and arranged substantially parallel to said cutting end, said cutting end and said handle end being joined together symmetrically by a pair of bridge widths narrow relative to the entire width of said sheet to form a pair of spaced pressure points, with said sheet being flexible in the direction parallel to said cutting end so as to be conformable to convex curvature of said windshield and stiff in the direction perpendicular to said cutting end for scraping said snow and ice from said windshield.

2. The hand scraper of claim 1 wherein said material is plastic, the bridge edges being substantially straight extensions of the sides of the scraper, thereby producing square cornered pressure points at the lateral extremities of the said cutting end.

3. The hand scraper of claim 1 wherein said cutting end is formed by shearing of said sheet.

4. The hand scraper of claim 3 wherein said cutting end has a pair of sharp cutting edges formed by said shearing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,325,540 12/1919 Spahr. 2,046,334 7/1936 Loeber. 2,277,528 3/1942 Osborn 15-236 2,946,076 7/1960 Morgan l5-236 CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner. LEON G. MACHLIN, Assistant Examiner. 

